What are you drinking ?

[jt]

Ok, so What Are You Brewing was a hotty, as topics go.

Now I'm 15 pints into a keg I only filled on Tuesday and wondering if anyone else has a favourite at the moment ?

It's my second brown with US-Oh05 and it's better than the forst, maybe Ikept the temps down a bit during the scorcher we had in januray

[jt]

By the way, I will likely be in NZ for a week or two at the end of Nov/beginning Dec.

Better pencil in a North Welly tasting then eh ?
Keep in touch and let us know when you have dates

[Stu McKinlay]

A few beers from the last week:

Bridge Road Chestnut Pilsner - nice rich. velvety malt-balanced lager.

Bridge Road Bling IPA - this is anything but "Bling" but I really liked it. Dry, with some toffee apple and a firm but balanced bitterness. Great clean fermentation, fully attenuated, very very drinkable.

Emerson's JP 2009 - I liked this beer when it first came out but saw huge potential in it's ability to cellar. I'm glad I put a case in the cellar because it is tasting outstanding now!

Had some Her Majesty on tap at The Malthouse... at those chilled temps it is quite different from the bottle, more like a spicy dark ale and harder to pick out the fruit and nut characters in the malts. Definitely worth a look. I suggested to Colin that he put a keg through the hopinator... Imported Styrian flowers would be worth a go... or, possibly, Southern Cross.

[Reviled]

Sh*t was up north all weekend and got back last night only to find out about chch, glad everyone down there is ok specially the RB members!!

[Llew Bardecki]

A bit late, but last Friday was one of the best beer nights of my life.

Celebrating my birthday at Hashigo Zake I received several gifts of beer, and used the occaison to buy a few for myself that I couldn't otherwise have justified.

The lineup for the evening included:
Mikkeller USAlive: Bottle about 2 years old. The brett had built up enough to not get lost in amongst the huge American hops. Leather, rose and citrus hop aromas. Very, very nice. I think this is amongst my favourite beers ever.

Mikkeller Fra-Til: Hugely flavourful beer built out of layer upon layer of subtle flavours. Lovely subtle spices. A touch of smoke. Big, chocolatey malt flavour, and just a hint of tartness.

Rogue Double Dead Guy: If I ever need to illustrate what "malty" smells like, this is the beer to do it with. HUGE aroma of Munich malt. Very little hops on the nose, but lots of bitterness to balance out all the malt sweetness.

Meantime IPA: Actually kind of got lost after all of those big beers... It seemed like the baby brother of the Double Dead Guy following right after it.

Moa St. Joseph's (in a Magnum :) I hadn't had a St. Joseph's in a long while. Wasn't a big fan of it the first time I tried it, but I was really pleased with it on Friday. Not sure whether it's a better beer now, or I've just learned to appreciate Belgian styles more.

Baird Pacific Century IPA: A big, citrussy IPA indeed. Was hard to get the full measure of its flavour after a night of such monstrous big beers, but the hop aroma was great.

Hallertau Porter Noir: First time I'd had this. Has a lot of potential, but I reckon it needs MUCH more time in the bottle. Almost no carbonation. Tons of wood on the nose, as well as definite "horsey" aroma. Quite sour already, but the sourness, wood, and sweetness are all completely separate flavours that don't work together yet. May need to pick up a bottle of this and set it aside for a couple of years.

Don't worry, I didn't drink all of those big bottles myself... Each was shared with between 2 and 5 of my many good friends who joined in the celebrations :)

A fabulous night with great beer and even better company!

[Stu McKinlay]

our invitations got lost i think ;-)

[Matthew]

Had a Tuatara Ardennes for the first time in a year or so. That's one tasty lil belgian. Much bigger orange than I remember, do they use orange peel at all?

Love that funky ardennes yeast too.

[jt]

Armagedon for a Thursday after work pint or two at the Parrot .. I'm absolutely sure there's no orange peel in this !

[Mike Neilson]

1 Malt 2 Sugars 3 Hops 2 Fermentation Temps 1 Yeast, Easy Peasy

[jt]

Easy Peasy

I'd trust Jo Seager to boil an egg .. I'd trust you to make make some beer

Epic Armageddon at the Parrot again tonight, first keg finished while we were there, they put the second on. quite different.

[Mike Neilson]

How about 4 Mash Steps, 3 Days of fermentation clean up, 2 Water Salts and 1 fucken dirty brewery every morning I walk in there after that bad boys been fermenting!! (YE ha) = ARDENNES

[Stu McKinlay]

Do you guys need more headspace?

[Mike Neilson]

Nah just more space!!